Sell or rent advice on moving

[coleen]

We have lived in our home 4 bed bungalow on a big site at the edge of a rural town for 32 years and in the local area since birth.
We have recently been thinking of moving to a larger town about 20 miles away. We think this town would be a nice place to retire as it has more services like bus and rail links and clubs to join. We are both still working my husband will probably work for 3 to 5 more years but I will work for 10 years. I am working in the town I live in so would have to travel to and from work 30 min drive.
We had two ideas one is to put our house on market we are mortgage free and see how long it takes to sell. The price of property in larger town is more expensive so we would have to buy something smaller as we do not want to loose any money in the move. So we think if we could sell for 200k and buy for 185k that should cover most cost like Estate Agent and Solicitor fees.
What other things should we take into consideration.
The other thing we were looking at is our son who would be a first time buyer and who rents in another area where he work but returns home every weekend would buy the property in the bigger town and then we could move into the house he buys rent out our home and pay him rent for his place if it covered the mortgage.
At the moment he has a good job with no ties but is often looking for a job in our locality.
I know his situation may change as he is only 30 and may meet someone and this would change his outlook.
If he wished he could commute from the new location to work as it would be about 1 hours away.
I am not sure that either of us would want to live together it is fine for weekend but if it was longer it could be an issue.
I know we would have tax implications from the rental income what other issues are there for my son.
Also we were looking at finding a house that suited us in the bigger town and let's say we found one for 170k then sell our house to our son for that amount and then he could rent it out and sell it if the time came that he wished to buy else where or live in it if he got local job.
Ant thoughts on these ideas welcome

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Hi Coleen

That is very complicated. I will try to unpick it.

Last things first. Leave your son out of the equation. He should buy a property when he is ready to buy in the place he wants to buy. He does not want to be an owner of a property in which his parents are living and in which he does not want to live himself. If he (and a partner) wants to buy a house, he won't be able to if he already has a house and mortgage. If he gets a job locally, and wants to buy your house, then that is different. But don't anticipate it. Sell it to him if it's appropriate at the time.

There have been advantages in the past for first time buyers, although I think that they have all ended now. But it's not impossible that there may be big advantages to being a first time buyer. You don't want him to lose them for buying a house that he didn't really want to buy in the first place.

I know you say he could buy your house and then sell it again if it doesn't suit him. Moving like that is expensive. 1% stamp duty and solicitors fees. New buyers usually want to put their own stamp on a house in terms of decoration and furniture.

You want to move to a bigger town when you retire? That is fine, but don't do it 10 years from retirement. Do it when you retire. 10 years driving 60 minutes a day will be very tiring and very expensive when you are used to walking to work.

Wait until the right time to move. If your son's circumstances change and he wants to buy your house in 5 years' time, that might be the time to make the decision.

Moving to a new larger town might or might not work out. Would you consider renting there for a while to see what it is like?